asked the Secretary of State for Employment if his Department will undertake a survey to ascertain whether the introduction of the three-day week has increased productivity, and what steps can be taken to ensure that the rate of productivity pertaining during the period of the three-day week can be maintained when normal weekly working is resumed.

There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that management and workers have co-operated very well to overcome the limitations imposed by three-day week working but the overall estimates of the effects on output are not yet available. I do not therefore at present propose to initiate a survey of the kind proposed.